Between Realities - Book 6 - The Andreas Divergence
by Dragonsight Elli
Summary: So many "What if"s in life... what would happen to the timeline if one small change occurred? What would change if one seemingly inconsequential individual were to live instead of dying? Find out in "The Andreas Divergence".


Between Realities – The Andreas DivergenceChapter 1 – FUBAR

"Dana, come join us!" Elli offered, waving as they headed for their dragons to wing back to Honshu.

"I will in a little bit," I assured her, adding a hug. "Just a few last minute things I want to check before I celebrate Turnover."

"All work, no play," Elli chuckled, returning the hug. "Don't be long, or I'll send Chlorith back to drag you to the party!"

"I promise," I assured her, turning her toward her dragon. "Now scoot! The rest of your party guests are probably wondering what happened to the hostess with the mostest!"

I stayed outside long enough to watch the dragons and their riders depart. As I was turning to head back inside, I felt a curious moment of vertigo that passed as quickly as it had come.

"That was weird," I muttered as I opened the hospital door and went inside.

The hospital staff was celebrating Turnover down in the cafeteria, the boisterous celebration reaching all the way to my office. I was just finishing up some data entry into my medical logs when Elli suddenly burst through the door, sobbing forlornly, tear pouring down her face.

"Elli, what's wrong?" I asked, rising from my desk and hurrying around to her.

"Andreas is dead!" she wailed, clinging to me, her whole body trembling.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, more than a little confused. "Andreas is just fine!"

"What?!" Elli gasped, her face losing all color. "That's not possible! You came and told me yourself! Starwoman Lessa killed him with an overdose of agenothree!"

"I took Andreas off the agenothree a few days ago," I explained. "I've switched him over to an old immunotherapy-stem cell protocol that AIVAS mentioned. It's designed to cause the human body to destroy cancer cells and to regenerate damaged organ tissue. Last med scan I did of him gives a nearly 100% prognosis of complete recovery in just a couple more sevendays."

"He's alive?!" Elli wept, tears pouring down her face.

"I'll show you," I assured her, taking her by the hand. "This way."

Down the hall and into the intensive care ward we went, Elli's cane tapping the whole way. Slowly, I led her up to Andreas' med pod, placing her hand gently on Andreas' chest.

"Feel that?" I asked, noting the look of surprise on Elli's face.

"He's warm!" she wept, more tears falling, "and breathing! I don't understand! How can this be?"

And then, Elli gasped, drawing the obvious conclusion. Hardly surprising given all the trans-dimensional travel the dragonriders had been making recently.

"Oh, Shards!" she whispered, one trembling hand still resting on Andreas' slowly rising and sinking chest, the other covering her trembling lips. "We jumped back to the wrong timeline… the wrong reality!"

"If Andreas died in the other reality," I softly replied, laying a gentle hand on Elli's trembling shoulder, "then I'd say you jumped back to the right one."

Turning in the direction I knew Chlorith would be outside, I added, "Chlorith seems to have a knack for bringing you where you need to be. We saw that when you first appeared at Robinton Cove. She may have sensed your pain over the loss and did something to try to deal with it."

Now the brief vertigo I had felt made sense.

"Elli, I think we've had another timeline divergence," I explained.

"What?!" she gasped. "How? When? Why? I don't understand!"

"I think Andreas is the locus of the divergence," I went on, once more giving Elli a reassuring hug. "Right after you and the others left to go to the Turnover celebration at Honshu, I felt a brief moment of vertigo. I think that's when the divergence occurred."

"Because you chose to stay here to see to your patients," Elli concluded, "including Andreas."

"That's about the size of it," I replied. "Why don't you fill me in on what happened."

It took a little prodding… and a good size glass of the best Benden wine to get her to relax. When she did, Elli retold the whole story… in vivid, graphic detail.

"It's still hard to believe," I muttered, shaking my head.

By this time, the others from Honshu had arrived. G'narish was comforting Elli, rocking her back and forth, the two of them hovering protectively over the sleeping Andreas.

"That the Lessa of that reality turned out to be such a bitch?!" Tiffany growled, clearly still angry about what they had been through.

"Think about it!" I urged them, taking a seat on a stool I pulled over. "How many Turns in that reality have gone by since we first introduced the dragons to their Pern?"

"Over 2500," Moreta replied, leaning closer. "What's your point?"

"2500 Turns of individual choices," I sighed, my gaze sweeping the room, "one path versus another. The odds of any of Admiral Benden's descendants bonding with a queen dragon AND being named Lessa AND ending up Starwoman of a home for dragons named after Admiral Benden after two and a half millennia?!"

"The odds are so infinitesimally small as to be practically non-existent!" Ryeena exclaimed.

"Well, this Lessa is real enough!" Elli spat, clearly still furious about that woman's actions in that reality.

"Granted," I admitted, glancing at the others. "You're certain it was the former Starwoman Lessa, the same one who called us to that reality to deal with Toutatis?"

_The same,_ Chlorith chimed in. _She tricked the staff on duty at the hospital, making them think she had reformed her ways, volunteering to see to the patients so that they could celebrate Turnover. She was the one who administered the lethal agenothree injection that killed Andreas… at least in that reality._

"That confirms the divergence, then," I sighed, shaking my head. "My decision to stay behind to look after my patients prevented the unhinged Lessa from gaining access to the hospital, thus saving Andreas' life."

"That's one special dragon you have, Elli," I said, coming over to lay a gentle hand on her shoulder. "She must've somehow sensed Andreas was still alive here, and knowing how much pain you were in, she brought you here to give you and G'narish another chance."

Turning to Rill, I asked, "You're certain Fubar Lessa was behind the psychotropic shipments to Toric?"

Tiffany burst out laughing. "Fubar Lessa! I love it!"

"Fubar?" Elli wondered, puzzled by her twin's reaction.

"It's a military expression, Elli," I explained. "It's an acronym… F…U…B…A…R… it stands for 'fucked up beyond all recognition'."

The whole room exploded with laughter.

"I love it!" Elli laughed, G'narish chuckling along with her. "That describes that bitch perfectly!"

Once more, I turned to Rill. "You're certain she was the one supplying the drugs?"

Rill nodded. "I found a drug container at one of the Abominator sites we cleared out. I checked it with Oldive and Fandarel. It clearly didn't originate in our reality."

"So how do we stop her from starting a dragon war?" Ryeena wondered, clearly concerned.

"Simple," I replied. "We take away their dragons."

Chapter 2 – Chrono-Archs

For several seconds, the room fell silent. Then, all hell broke loose!

"How the hell are you gonna take away their dragons?!" Elli demanded, furious at me. "Once a dragon's Impressed, that's it! You take one away, you kill the other half!"

"You can't seriously mean to kill dragons, do you?!" Rill chimed in, horrified by what I was suggesting.

"Do any of you honestly believe Tarnaa would let me do such a thing?" I quietly responded, sweeping the room with my gaze.

Nothing but silence.

"I know what I'm proposing seems gruesome," I went on, mustering as much calm as I could in a room filled with hostile esper undertones, "but hear me out. It's not what you think."

"Well, you certainly got our attention with that remark about taking away their dragons," Weyrwoman Lessa muttered, releasing her hold on the hilt of her belt knife. Settling back in her seat, she said, "We're listening. What's your plan?"

"Simply this," I responded, leaning on the edge of the table in front of me, "what if we returned to their past, just after the end of that single Pass, and bring the dragons forward in time to this reality?"

Gasps swept the room, the possibility of what I was suggesting finally registering in their minds.

"By the First Egg!" Moreta whispered, her eyes like saucers.

"Can we do that?" Tiffany wondered, touching her twin's shoulder.

"We did the reverse saving their reality from Toutatis," Elli responded, turning to her friend. "The opposite is certainly possible."

"Just like Lessa bringing the five missing weyrs forward in time to fight Thread!" Ryeena chimed in.

"But what does any of this have to do with Fubar Lessa?" Tiffany wanted to know.

"Holy shit!" Elli suddenly exclaimed, leaping to her feet. "It has everything to do with her!"

"What're you talking about?" G'narish wondered, puzzled by his weyrmate's behavior.

"Don't you get it?" Elli wondered, seizing his hand. "No dragon… no starhold… no Fubar Lessa!"

"And no psychotropic drugs supplied to Toric," Kylara added.

Murmurs swept the crowd as everyone absorbed and digested what I had proposed, until…

"You can't!" Ariana cried, her terrified voice resounding off the walls.

"The time paradox!" Oriana chimed in, as fearful as her twin.

"The what?" Tiffany asked, a little confused.

Grinning broadly, I walked up to Elli's girls, wrapping the two of them up in a great big bear hug.

"The chrono-archs would be proud of you girls!" I said, smiling as I pulled back to look at each of them. "Bravo!"

"What the hell's going on?" Elli demanded.

"Exactly what they said," I replied, turning to face everyone, my hands on the two girls' shoulders.

"I don't follow," Weyrwoman Lessa complained.

"Let's use your jump back in Time to bring the five missing Weyrs forward to fight Thread as an example," I explained. "If you hadn't made the jump, Weyrwoman, what would've happened?"

"Pern would've been destroyed!" Manora responded. "Up until Lessa made that incredible jump back in Time, we didn't have enough Weyrs to fight Thread."

"The whole planet would've been destroyed," F'lar added. "What's your point?"

"The multiverse is a hodge-podge of dimensions," I responded, "each one created when a critical decision is made… the choices each of us makes defining that particular reality."

"Remember the rift encounter?" I went on, my gaze sweeping the room. "That moment when a trans-dimensional gateway unexpectedly connected our reality to Admiral Benden's… the alternate reality created by the Kitt Ping divergence?"

"The one where she chose to pursue the zebedees instead of the dragons?" Moreta wondered.

I nodded. "The moment we provided Admiral Benden and those colonists with dragons, our two realities became entwined… inextricably connected."

"Wait, I see where this is going!" Elli exclaimed. "We take away the dragons, we remove Fubar Lessa!"

"Twin, what's wrong?" Tiffany asked, sensing Elli's sudden fear. "Isn't that what we all want?"

Several in the room voiced agreement.

"No, we can't," Elli sobbed, the truth abruptly dawning on her.

"Why the hell not?!" G'narish demanded, suddenly angry. "After everything she's done, now you want to let her go?!"

"We don't have a choice," Elli wept, burying her head in my shoulder, her tears continuing to fall.

Pulling back a bit, wiping away some of her tears, Elli told me, "My girls aren't the only ones the Chrono-Archs would be proud of, Dana. But what do we do?"

"Would someone mind explaining what the hell is going on?" Weyrleader F'lar demanded.

Turning to Elli's girls, I said, "You tell them."

One girl on each side, Ori and Ari hugged their mother.

"It's true that if we removed the dragons from that reality," Ori began, glancing first at Elli then across at her twin, "we would eliminate any chance of Fubar Lessa existing."

"But that very act would also affect both of our realities," Ari went on, smiling at her twin. "Without that Lessa, we would not be alerted to Toutatis. And without that warning,…"

"Shards and Shells!" Rill hissed, coming up to kneel in front of Elli's girls. "Without that warning, we'd've never gone to that alternate reality. Toutatis would've slammed into that Pern, triggering a life-extinction event, killing everyone and everything on the planet!"

"By the First Egg!" Weyrwoman Lessa hissed.

"While the potential solution seems simple, deceptively so," I went on, "the ramifications would be anything but. This sort of thing is what caused the destruction of numerous civilizations across the galaxy; those who had discovered time travel and misused it, in most cases accidentally because they didn't take the… time… to ponder the effects of what they proposed to do. This was something the chrono-archeologists harped on time and again during our investigations."

"You made that suggestion on purpose, didn't you?" Elli chuckled, poking me playfully in the chest with the tip of her cane.

"Worked, didn't it?" I chuckled back, giving her another hug. "Timing-it is dangerous enough. Trans-dimensional hopping magnifies that danger exponentially."

"So what do we do?" Masterharper Sebell begged, unaccustomed to being at a loss for how to proceed.

"We have the best and brightest minds gathered together in this very room," I replied, smiling at my friends. "We put that much imagination and creativity together, we can accomplish anything!"

"Including figuring out a way to not only to deal with Fubar Lessa," Elli chimed in, linking arms with me on one side.

"But also protecting the inhabitants of all the realities!" G'narish offered, laying his hands gently on his weyrmate's shoulders. "Count me in!"

"Us, too!" Ori and Ari exclaimed as one, hugging their Mom.

Cheers of support erupted in the room, the applause almost deafening as the others in attendance gathered around us.

"Let's get to work, then!" I suggested.

Chapter 3 – The Old Switcheroo

The first order of business, then, was dealing with the psychotropics Lessa was dishing out.

"Any idea how to do that?" someone begged.

"F-Lessa is no one's fool," I mused, fingers interlaced, the two index fingers forming a steeple of sorts. "In many respects, she could've been Toric's twin… clever, inventive, driven, ruthless. It won't be easy bringing her down."

To the group in general, I asked, "Do we know where she's keeping the drugs?"

Oddly enough, I heard what sounded like an echo of my question, only it was in my head, sending chills up and down my spine.

"That much we've been able to discover," Seeoru replied. "F-Lessa cannot shield her thoughts from the Skolrom."

I rose from my seat, making my way around the table to where Seeoru stood. Someone was standing behind her, a being from all appearances who was human.

"Hold that thought a moment, Seeoru," I interrupted, holding up my hand to pause the conversation, my words once more oddly echoing in my head. "Who's your friend?"

Turning to the one standing behind her, she replied, "Oh, this is Katie, from Igen Starhold."

"Human?" I asked, looking closely at Katie's face.

"Yes," the being called Katie replied.

I shook my head, sniffing the air. "You smell like Skolrom… and humans don't have nictitating membranes in their eyes!"

Seeoru and others gasped as those very membranes flashed briefly across Katie's eyes. My blaster was out of its holster in the next heartbeat, the stun blast sending the imposter flying across the room, thudding heavily to the floor, unconscious. Everyone gasped as the human Katie polymorphed back into a Kolrom.

"A spy!" Ky spat, her hand tensing on the hilt of her belt knife.

"How did you know?" Seeoru wondered, clearly pained by this betrayal committed by one of her own kind.

"My words kept echoing inside my head," I explained, holstering my weapon. "Like a dragon does when they speak to me."

"She was relaying our conversations to our enemy!" Weyrwoman Lessa raged, repeatedly gripping and releasing the hilt of her own belt knife.

"No wonder F-Lessa's been able to stay one step ahead of us!" G'narish grunted, standing over the unconscious form of one of Seeoru's people.

"Do you have a means to secure her?" I asked Seeoru.

She nodded, gesturing to some of the undisguised Skolrom in the room. They picked up the traitor and carried her out of the room.

"Dana, I… thank you… for not killing her."

It took several seconds before I could respond. "It crossed my mind." Turning to Seeoru, I asked, "You okay?"

Seeoru shook her head. "We must move carefully. We don't know who else might be compromised."

"Agreed," I replied, nodding. "But back to the question at hand… you mentioned F-Lessa can't hide her thoughts from your people."

Seeoru nodded.

"We'll need the exact locations the psychotrops are being kept," I said, leaning closer. "Can you extract mental images of the locations from her?"

"What are you planning to do?" Elli demanded, laying a hand on my arm.

I turned to Ky. "Since the drugs come from your reality, can we synthesize something that, under a cursory med scan, appears to be the psychotropic drug but is totally non-toxic?"

"A placebo?" Ky wondered, considering the possibility. "Well, yes, we can. What are you thinking?"

"Bait and switch," I replied. "Do something that pulls F-Lessa away from her drug stash then pop in from _between_ and replace the psychotrops with the placebo drug."

"That's why you need the mental images!" Seeoru exclaimed.

I nodded. "Under cover of my optical camouflage, I can jump _between_ into her drug storeroom, swap out the meds, and be out of there before she's any the wiser."

"But why does it have to be you?" Tiffany demanded.

"I'm the only human who can go _between_ like a dragon," I replied. "While Seeoru and her people are exceedingly gifted espers and can probably teleport like a dragon, she and her people are already risking a lot extracting the images from F-Lessa. And I'm the only one with experience with the optical camouflage as well as training in non-obtrusive cultural observation techniques. I'll also have a better chance of detecting any anti-optical camouflage defensive measures F-Lessa may have put in place."

"Then I'm going with you," Kara insisted, stepping up to me.

"Kara…"

"You trained me in how to use the optical camouflage," she argued, laying a hand on my arm, "along with the stealth observation training. Besides, two people can get the job done faster than one."

"She's right, you know," Elli chimed in, tapping me on the shoulder with her cane.

Chuckling, I nodded to Kara.

To Ky, I asked, "How fast can you make up the placebo?"

"A few hours," she replied.

"Make it sooner," I told her. "Lessa will be alerted to the loss of her spy. We'll have to move quickly to stay one step ahead of her."

"We'd best get started, then," Seeoru muttered, her face and voice betraying the pain she felt.

The images the Skolrom were able to extract were very precise, just as clear if not more so than dragon images. It was a good thing, too.

"Uh oh," I muttered as I was examining one particular image.

"Spot something?" Kara asked.

I nodded. Seeoru was the one broadcasting the image to me. "Against the far wall, that small object… see it? Almost obscured by the small boxes in front of it?"

"What is it?" Seeoru wondered.

"Anti-personnel disruptor mine," I grimly replied, shaking my head. "Proximity fuse. If you're not wearing the safety key when you get near that thing, everything within a fifteen meter radius is blasted to subatomic particles."

"Nasty toy," Ky remarked.

"And the psychotrops stash is right in front of that thing!" Seeoru groaned, still scanning the image.

"Do we try for the safety key?" G'narish asked.

I shook my head. "She's probably got extra safety keys stashed somewhere. No, we have to retrieve the drugs. It's our only chance."

"How?" Elli wanted to know. "You pop in there and… Boom! Your smart ass is blown to bits!"

"Those things come with a one-second delay," I responded, focusing on the details of the image extraction.

"Are you out of your ever loving mind?!" Ryeena exclaimed, seizing my arm.

"What is it, child?" Moreta wondered, clearly concerned.

"She's gonna try and get the drugs!" my young friend yelled.

"We have no choice," I argued, turning to Ky. "You ready?"

She nodded, gesturing to a nearby table.

Bottles of the placebo sat there, different sizes, different bottles. Using the memory scan as a guide, I picked up the exact matches for what I was seeing and set them on a second table in the exact stacking and orientation from the image.

"Dana, no!" Ryeena sobbed, desperately clutching my arm. "You can't!"

"We have no choice, Ryeena," I softly replied, giving her a hug. "We have to stop her. This is the only way."

Tears poured down her face as I slowly walked Ryeena off a short distance. Pulling free of her grip, I moved back over to an empty table set beside the one I'd arranged with the placebo bottles.

"Well, here goes nothing!" I whispered, positioning my body according to the mental image before switching on the optical camouflage.

I vanished from sight. The only way anyone knew I had jumped _between_ was the small 'Whump' of imploding air that filled the space I suddenly vacated.

"Seeoru?" Ky asked, everyone else holding their collective breaths.

"Our sensors are not registering any sort of detonation," she reported.

In the next breath, bottles full of the dangerous psychotropic drugs suddenly materialized midair, me a second later as I switched off the optical camouflage after reemerging from _between_.

"She made it!" Ryeena exclaimed, running forward.

"Not yet, Ryeena," I argued, setting the bottles down on the empty table.

Moving to the table of placebo-containing bottles, I once more positioned myself, my arms encircling the replacements. First, I disappeared from sight behind the optical camouflage, then the placebo bottles vanished as I jumped back _between_. Seconds later, I returned, empty-handed.

"You lunatic!" Ryeena sobbed, wrapping me up in a fierce embrace, tears cascading down her face.

"You are hopelessly insane, you know that?" Elli chuckled, joining her hug to Ryeena's.

"We'll have to scrutinize those next stash site memory extractions more closely," I sighed, glancing up at Seeoru as I wiped some of the nervous sweat from my forehead. "That was closer than I like to pull it."

"You think she has each stash site booby-trapped like that first one?" Weyrleader F'lar asked.

"I think we can count on it," I muttered. Turning to my Eastern Islands friend, I asked Kara, "Still want to help me?"

"Who else is going to keep you out of trouble?" she chuckled, shaking her head at the enormity of what we faced.

The next mental image confirmed F-Lessa's paranoia. Another booby trap could be clearly seen near the second stash of the psychotropic drugs. Kara was nervous about the extraction. I could tell by her body language, even though she didn't say anything openly. In the end, however, she performed flawlessly, the two of us disguised by our optical camouflage jumping _between_ back and forth, retrieving and replacing the psychotropic drugs safely.

There were nearly two dozen stashes spread around the planet, each one guarded by the disruptor booby traps. Between the two of us, Kara and I successfully cleared out each stash, leaving the placebo drugs in their place. Once we had them all, they were loaded aboard healer-rider dragons from Robinton Cove and taken directly back to the hospital for safekeeping.

"We did it!" Kara sighed, watching as the last healer-rider dragon pair vanished _between_.

"Good thing, too," Elli sighed. "We have patients back at the hospital that we can now treat, thanks to those drugs."

"It's not over yet," I cautioned everyone. "It won't take F-Lessa long to figure out what's wrong. And we still have to determine how many others might be helping her. Seeoru, any luck figuring out how Katie was compromised?"

Solemnly, she nodded. "Even unconscious, we were able to pull memories from her mind. F-Lessa is holding her little sister hostage, keeping the poor child in a drugged stupor, threatening to kill her if Katie didn't help her."

"Then that's the next step," Elli concluded, coming up beside me. "Free her pawns so they can't be used against us."

Chapter 4 – The Fire Triangle

With the psychotropics dealt with, now it was time to rescue F-Lessa's hostages… the ones she was using to coerce the other races into doing her bidding. This was the most challenging task we faced. One wrong move could cost an innocent their life.

Seeoru and her people were invaluable in this endeavor… using their esper talents to extract memory images from F-Lessa's mind, allowing us to pinpoint precisely where her hostages were located.

F-Lessa's deprivations weren't limited to one race. In addition to the Skolrom hostages that we uncovered, she also had hostages from the

Kendites as well as the Aquilans. Even more disturbing, she had sequestered many of the mentasynth-enhanced dolphins in a small mountain lake in the northern regions of what was Telgar Hold in our reality. Clearly, she was worried that the dolphins' sonar abilities would be able to detect anomalies in the beings F-Lessa had subjected to the psychotropics, so she had trapped and relocated them all to remove the threat they posed.

"This has to be a coordinated effort," I explained to the rescue planning team. "We can't simply rescue one hostage at a time. That will alert F-Lessa and place the other hostages at risk."

I turned to Elli. "Can Chlorith help us with the coordination?"

_Of course, I can_, she instantly replied. _However, if precise timing is paramount, then have Aureath and Aurelith coordinate the jumps. Short of Ruth's remarkable ability to know precisely where and when he is, those two are the most accurate._

"She's right, Mama," Ariana remarked.

"Hey, I'm in this, too!" Oriana jumped in.

"I want you and Chlorith there supervising them," I told Elli. Kneeling in front of Elli's girls, I added, "We can't afford any mistakes, got it?"

Solemnly, the two girls nodded.

"Davix, Merleek," I said, turning to the Aquilan representatives of the extraction team, "will you need any support for the dolphins?"

They both shook their heads.

"We are well known among the pods," Davix commented, glancing at his mate.

"They will trust us without question," Merleek added. "That'll be important if we are to pull this off."

"Keynar? Feerah?" I asked, turning to the Kendite representatives.

"Our natural ability as hunters will improve our chances of reaching the hostages without detection," Feerah responded, glancing at her partner.

"And, should it prove necessary," Keynar added with a guttural growl, "our strength will allow us to deal with those who might be guarding the hostages."

"You've all seen the images of the anti-personnel disruptor mines we found at the drug sites?" I spoke to the room in general.

Everyone nodded; their expressions grim. No verbal response was needed.

"Then take up your positions," I ordered, double-checking the settings on my blaster before holstering it. "We move in 30 minutes."

A short time later, elsewhere on the planet, F-Lessa was beginning to suspect something was wrong. After all, the drug she had just administered to Wirenth wasn't having any effect in coercing the recalcitrant dragon!

_No, I won't!_ Wirenth howled, taking flight and vanishing _between_ before F-Lessa could stop her.

"What by all the Shells is going on?!" F-Lessa demanded, smashing the syringe on a nearby rock.

"You're asking me?" P'son stammered, flinching away from the queen rider's fury.

"Give me that!" she raged, snatching the med scanner from his hands and passing it over the bottle of psychotropics.

"What's wrong?" P'son wondered. "I checked it this morning before we administered the first doses."

"No," F-Lessa hissed, leaning forward to examine the scan screen more closely. "This isn't the real drug! It's a fake!"

"Impossible!" P'son argued. "The stash is protected by that mine you had me install! No one without the security key can approach the stash without getting blasted to bits!"

"It's an effing placebo!" F-Lessa raged, smashing the med scanner against the same rock the syringe had fallen victim to.

Suddenly, she gasped, glancing off in a different direction, taking off at a dead run as though Threadfall was pursuing her. Confused by her abrupt mood swing, P'son did his best to keep up.

In a cave cleverly disguised behind a holographic projection of a solid rock face, F-Lessa heaved a temporary sigh of relief when she discovered another of her prize possessions was still there.

"Sharding vermin," she growled, double-checking that the Kolrom child, sister to her erstwhile spy, was still securely strapped down, an IV drip keeping the little brat in a drugged stupor, unable to use her own psi talents. "Increase the dose!"

"If we give her too much," P'son complained, needle in hand, "it'll kill her!"

"Then it kills her!" F-Lessa growled, seizing him by the jerkin and pulling him threateningly close. "Those miserable Skolrom will learn not to defy me. Just do it!"

An ethereal voice, seemingly out of nowhere, interrupted them.

"Wrong answer," they both heard.

The sound of skin on skin filled the room as F-Lessa went flying. Startled, P'son dropped the syringe and was reaching for his blaster when he unexpectedly felt the tip of something pressed to his temple. He gasped as I materialized next to him, my own blaster pressed against his skull.

"Bad move," I spoke, jabbing the barrel of my blaster harder into the side of his head. "Unless you've got a death wish, I suggest you drop it."

He did, the gun clattering noisily to the floor as he slowly raised his hands.

"Good man," I said, lowering my weapon.

Hoping to catch me unawares, P'son made a sudden move to try and grab my gun. He didn't make it. While others in the Star Service had focused on honing their marksmanship with the blaster, I had split my training between the blaster and hand-to-hand combat techniques. P'son went sailing, lifted completely off the floor by my lightning-fast side kick. He crashed down on top of a nearby table, reducing the unfortunate bit of furniture to splinters.

"You!" F-Lessa exclaimed, nursing a bruise on her jaw.

"You were expecting maybe Santa Claus?" I joked, lowering my foot back down to the ground as I once more raised my blaster.

"The rider with the dragon eyes!" F-Lessa raged, gesturing wildly with her hands. "You brought the dragons back then! Now you've ruined everything!"

"The only thing I've ruined was your plans for conquest," I sighed, moving over next to the Kolrom child, Katie's sister. "You're through. Get used to it. Now, if you'll excuse me."

Quickly holstering my blaster, I picked up Katie's sister, and together, we vanished _between_.

"No!" F-Lessa howled, venting her frustration.

I jumped straight back to Robinton Cove, landing on the special arrival pad designed for my unique teleportational abilities. Healer-riders were there waiting for us, taking the Kolrom child from me. Transferring her to a waiting Gurney, they rushed her inside for immediate treatment while I spoke with Katie.

"Is she…" Katie begged, shifting to her human form before laying her trembling hand on my arm.

"She'll be fine," I assured her, smiling as I patted her hand. "And I owe you an apology."

"For what you did?" Katie chuckled, shaking her head. "I deserved it, betraying the other Skolrom like that."

"You have learned from the experience," Seeoru remarked, giving her fellow Kolrom a hug. "We all grow stronger because of it."

"What happens now?" Katie wondered, turning to me.

"Have you ever heard of the fire triangle?" I asked.

Both Skolrom shook their heads.

"It refers to what is needed to make a fire," I explained. "Three things are needed… fuel, oxidizer, and a source of ignition."

"What does this have to do with F-Lessa?" Seeoru wondered.

"In her case, she needed three things to make her conquest possible," I replied. "The psychotropics…"

"To bend her followers to her will," Seeoru concluded.

"The hostages…"

"To coerce the unwilling to do her bidding," Katie muttered.

"And the third?" Seeoru asked.

"The dragons," I grimly spoke. "She needs them to move trans-dimensionally…"

"So that she can spread her hate," Moreta remarked, joining us.

"The child?" I asked.

"She'll be fine," Moreta assured us, nodding to our Kolrom friends. "Several other Skolrom are working right now to purge her system of the drugs F-Lessa gave her to keep her docile and subdued."

"And Shandra's young rescue?" I inquired.

"Scared, disoriented, but fine," Moreta reported. "Shandra's hovering over her like the child's mother, constantly fretting about her care!"

"That's good to know," I chuckled, nodding.

"Dana, this 'fire' triangle," Seeoru said, getting back to our discussion, "how does this apply to the dragons?"

"Just like a fire," I explained, "if you eliminate one or more of the three parts of the triangle, the fire won't light."

"Well, you and the others have already eliminated two of the F-Lessa triangle items," Katie spoke, gesturing with her hands, "the psychotropic drugs and the hostages. How do the dragons fit into this?"

"As long as F-Lessa has access to dragons," I replied, frowning as I did, "she can continue to spread her doctrine of hate and intolerance. We have to remove that part of the triangle, too."

"How can you possibly do that?" Moreta wondered.

"I had almost forgotten about something that had happened during my Star Service Academy days," I explained, my gaze sweeping the others, "until I accidentally uncovered something while going through some of Kitt Ping's old, personal Eridani notes."

"Meaning?" Moreta prodded.

"There is a way we can take away F-Lessa's dragons," I quietly replied.

"WHAT?!" the others all gasped.

"But I'll need your help, Seeoru, to do it," I grimly added, nodding to her.

Gulping loudly, she nodded back.

Chapter 5 – The Dragon and The Angel

After making one more check on Katie's sister, I hurried off to a secluded location to see to another of my unusual patients.

"How are you feeling?" I asked as I checked the portable med scanner.

"Better," my patient replied, "though it is a bit strange to be conversing this way."

"You'll get used to it," I chuckled, closing the scanner. "I'm honored that you sought me out."

"You are the rider with the dragon eyes," my patient calmly replied, just a hint of awe coloring her voice. "You are a legend among the dragons and riders of our reality; one would almost say mythic in stature."

"Oh, I'm far from mythic, my friend," I laughed, though I was touched by the sentiment.

"What happens now?" she wondered.

"The first two phases have been successfully completed," I reported, ticking off the points on my fingers. "We've successfully removed the psychotropics from F-Lessa's control."

"I wish that demon was here now," my patient spoke, clearly incensed by the mere mention of the former Starwoman's name. "I would relish the chance to rip out her blackest of hearts!"

"Given what she did to you, Ramoth," I sighed, patting the diminutive queen on the neck, "you would be within your rights to do so. But consider. Such an act would ultimately serve that devil woman's goal of dividing Pern and plunging the planet into civil war."

"And the hostages?" mini Ramoth asked.

"All successfully rescued and being treated for their injuries," I was happy to report. "Even the dolphins."

"To use innocents in her plans," mini Ramoth rumbled, her eyes shading to an angry red, "to even put their lives in danger… I take it back. That woman has no heart at all!"

"Ramoth, if you don't mind me asking," I said, meeting her gaze, "why did you choose her in the first place? Did you think you could help her somehow?"

Mini Ramoth nodded. "I sensed the darkness at her center. I had foolishly believed that I could somehow turn her to the light."

"You tried, noble Ramoth," I assured her, gently patting her on the neck. "That proves the true nature of your heart, your soul."

"How did you make it so that I could speak aloud like humans do?" she inquired.

"I was going through some of AIVAS' old files on Kitt Ping when I uncovered some of her research notes," I explained. "She had initially considered giving dragons the human ability of speech. She even had the Eridani protocols all laid out and ready to implement but decided at the last moment that telepathic communion, especially during the heat of battling Thread would be more efficient."

"Why did you give me the gift of human speech, then?" she inquired.

"So that you could help me complete the final stage that will bring an end to F-Lessa's atrocities," I replied, my expression grim. "In this way, everyone will be able to hear and understand you without the need for any psionic talent."

"She will know the moment I return to that reality," mini Ramoth bemoaned.

"You will not return alone, my friend," I assured her, once more patting her on the neck.

_Many of us will be with you, sister,_ Tarnaa silently chimed in. _Together, we can overcome her depravities._

"How soon before we return?" mini Ramoth wondered.

"As soon as you are ready to," I replied, nodding.

"Then we'd best not keep that witch waiting," mini Ramoth growled.

A sizeable force of dragonriders and healer-riders returned to that alternate reality, each one grimly determined to bring an end to this frightening crisis brought about by one human's insane lust for power.

Mini Ramoth's concern was verified the moment we materialized in that alternate reality. A sled roared overhead within minutes of our arrival, the pilot bent on only one thing… getting her dragon back!

"Ramoth!" F-Lessa roared as she burst from the sled. "Useless parasite! You dare return after abandoning me?! Come here, cowardly tunnel snake! I'm going to rip out your worthless heart!"

Unaware of the Eridani protocols I had used on mini Ramoth, what happened next caught everyone off-guard.

"No," mini Ramoth growled aloud in perfect English.

"By the First Egg!" Weyrwoman Lessa gasped.

"She can speak like us!" Elli exclaimed.

Everyone's gaze instantly swung to me standing beside mini Ramoth.

"I discovered some secret research notes in Kitt Ping's old files," I explained, patting mini Ramoth on the neck. "The Eridani technique was a bit complex, but Kitt Ping's notes were very clear and precise." Chuckling, I added, "I should warn you. A talking dragon is not afraid to give you a piece of their mind!"

"Ramoth, to me!" F-Lessa demanded, stomping the ground in emphasis.

The little queen paused a moment, considering her words, before finally uttering a guttural "Go to hell."

"You dare refuse me?!" F-Lessa raged, punching the diminutive dragon in the nose. "You are mine!"

"Not any longer," mini Ramoth rumbled, her eyes shading to an angry red. "You have harmed or killed all manner of sentient creatures in your mad pursuit of power. You are not worthy of the gift of Impression!"

Silently, I nodded to Seeoru. With but a brief moment to focus the considerable power of her psionic abilities, the deed was done. F-Lessa staggered, placing a hand to her head. In the next breath, she turned white as a sheet!

"No!" she gasped, eyes like saucers as she stared at the diminutive queen dragon. "Where is the contact? I don't feel you in my mind! What have you done?!"

"Cast you out," mini Ramoth replied, almost seeming to grin, her red eyes feverishly awhirl. "Thanks to Seeoru and her Kolrom psionic gifts, that link has been forever severed. You will never Impress another dragon again!"

"NO!" F-Lessa howled, glancing frantically about, the tears she shed uncharacteristically out of place.

"It is more than just the breaking of Impression," Seeoru explained, coming up on mini Ramoth's other side. "I had never performed the procedure myself, but Dana had recalled some of her psionics training during her Star Service Academy days."

"What do you mean?" Weyrleader F'lar demanded.

"For those who manifested telepathic abilities during the psionics screenings," Seeoru continued, "but were unwilling or unable to deal with the talent, a specific Eridani protocol could be used on them to remove the telepathic ability."

"What?!" many in the crowd gasped.

"Are you saying…" Elli stammered.

I nodded.

Turning to F-Lessa, I growled, "You abused your esper talent, causing great harm and pain in the process. As a result, you forfeited your right to that gift. You are now just a normal human, completely devoid of any sort of psionic talent."

"You weren't joking, were you?" Elli gasped, coming over to lay a hand on my arm. "I… I thought you… you were just kidding! But you actually meant it, didn't you?"

Slowly, I nodded.

"What are you talking about, twin?" Tiffany demanded, joining our group.

"She found a way to take away their dragons!" Elli exclaimed, staggering back a step.

"What?!" Tiffany stammered, stunned by this revelation.

"Not all of them," I solemnly responded, my gaze fixed squarely on F-Lessa. "Just this one."

"No, please!" F-Lessa begged, genuinely afraid. "You can't! I…"

I shook my head, inexplicably full of pity for this vile woman. "The protocol is irreversible. You will never hear another dragon ever again."

"NOOOOOOO!" the former Starwoman howled, sinking to her knees, convulsed with sobbing.

For several minutes, no one moved, too overcome by the heartbreak in the woman's cry of anguish.

"Can you do anything for her?" I asked, taking Elli by the hand.

"Me?!" she squeaked; not expecting that question.

"You're the mental health expert," I acknowledged, glancing over at the huddled woman's weeping form. "Extreme PTSD, shock, not to mention a few other mental disorders… I know I'm asking a lot of you, given what she's done and all…"

Elli hesitated. It wasn't hard to imagine what was going through her mind, especially after what the former Starwoman had done to her son.

"Do it for Andreas," I urged, giving Elli's hand a gentle squeeze.

With a reluctant sigh, Chlorith's rider finally nodded.

"You know, she is manifesting symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder," Elli quietly commented. Chuckling, she added, "Those psychotropics she was misusing might actually do her some good! It's gonna take time…"

"With the crisis finally over," Seeoru calmly spoke, giving Elli a hug, "we have all the time we need now."

_Seeoru,_ mini Ramoth spoke telepathically, _in all things you have acted with patience and compassion. I am grateful to you and Dana for setting me free. But what will I do now without a rider?_

"Would I be acceptable?" a small, quiet voice responded.

Turning at the sound, we all saw Shandra come forward through the crowd, hand-in-hand with the angel-like child she had rescued earlier.

"This is Empyrea, an Avianis from the planet Tennin," Shandra explained, gesturing to the little avian-like miracle.

"The child you thought you had killed," Elli responded.

Shandra nodded, smiling at the child. "I didn't realize until later that what I had actually seen was you and Chlorith stepping in at the last nanosecond, spiriting Empyrea _between_ to safety. Thank you!"

Stopping a short distance away, the crowd parted to allow mini Ramoth to approach. Quietly, deliberately, she whuffled the seemingly fragile being up and down, her eyes slowly shading to a contented blue-green color.

_You have much courage, little one,_ mini Ramoth rumbled, pulling back slightly to turn her slowly whirling eyes on this new wonder. _A strong heart. Are you certain this is what you want?_

Grinning shyly, Empyrea nodded.

_So be it, _mini Ramoth rumbled, proffering her foreleg. _I would be honored for you to be my rider._

Quiet gasps rose from those of us who could still hear dragons. With a squeal of delight, Empyrea climbed aboard mini Ramoth, settling easily onto her new lifemate's neck ridge.

"I think it's a good choice," Elli quietly spoke, giving her Kolrom friend a hug.

"So do me and Ori," Ari chimed in, joining the hug.

Seeoru returned the hug, shedding a few very human tears.

"And, as a final measure of our good fortune this day…" I said, gesturing to one of the healer-riders in the crowd.

He came forward, little Andreas gently cradled in his arms, and passed him to Elli.

"Med scans show complete remission from the cancer," he explained, grinning broadly at the news he shared, "and total restoration of any damaged internal organs." Chuckling as he covered one ear, he added, "He has no trouble letting you know when he's hungry!"

"Andreas!" Elli wept, hugging her child tightly, tears pouring down her face.

As if to prove the extent of his recovery, Andreas stirred, squirming a bit, and then split the air with his wail of hunger!

Several members of the hospital staff soon arrived to escort the bereft former Starwoman back to Robinton Cove to begin her long period of treatment and convalescence. The rest of us, including the dragon and the angel, gathered around Elli to offer our congratulations on Andreas' successful recovery.

Only one concern remained… would the different realities experience another merging like before? On this point, I was fairly certain it wouldn't. There were a significant number of discrepancies between them that I felt would preclude such an occurrence. Besides, it offered those of us treating the drugged dragons and riders a way to keep them isolated during their recovery, minimizing any potential problem areas. Elli was especially pleased with that aspect of the situation.

With a little luck, a good deal of patience, and plenty of imagination, yet another crisis… one of human making and design… had finally been brought to a conclusion. I'm sure we were all praying that, this time, the peace would last!

*****- The End -*****


End file.
